John Allan

Timeline cleanse: Happy Gotcha Days edition
(Via r/MadeMeSmile)

Keir Starmer's aides are reportedly telling him not to go to the COP30 climate conference, because Reform would attack him for it.
Yes, they might.
And he should wear it as a badge of honour.
Standing up for humanity, for science and a habitable planet.
Where's the hazard in that?

Jimmy Kimmel’s suspension is an alarming new low for the ongoing culture wars | Jesse Hassenger The late-night show getting pulled ‘indefinitely’ after relatively mild commentary about the right is another worrying sign of where Trump’s America is heading

Jimmy Kimmel’s suspension is an alarming new low for the ongoing culture wars | Jesse Hassenger

STEWART: “Comedy doesn’t change the world, but it’s a bellwether— we’re the banana peel in the coal mine… authoritarians are the threat to comedy, music, art, thought… progress.”

Nailed it.

Van Hollen: "Those who cave in -- those like ABC who cave in -- what they do is give the bully an even bigger appetite. When they appease they bully, they put all of us at risk."

A simple poem of solidarity from the seaside

Christ, can’t we stop dehumanising trans lives and using them as clickbait - look to see despicable promotion of misogyny in USA by white supremacist men (and often predators) , see how the incel movement grows in UK schools and bars

The image is a screenshot of a tweet from Bearly Politics (@i_ratus ). The tweet reads: “‘Yes, you’re wearing a suit, BUT DID YOU EVEN SAY THANK YOU?!’” Below the tweet, there is an image of three individuals in a formal setting, with two of them seated on ornate yellow chairs and gesturing with their hands. A penguin is standing on one of the chairs, dressed in a small suit. The background includes a fireplace, a flag, and other decorative elements, suggesting a formal or official room.

We have a winner!

It takes about 20 goes to get it to work. It works perfectly, however for my wife. She must enunciate much better than me. The solution? I’ve recorded a voice memo of her saying ‘Subtitles Off’. Works every time! I am a genius.

So, funny story. As I’m getting on a bit, and with background noise, I struggle sometimes to hear the tv so I use subtitles. I use the Sky blue button to switch them on but it’s always a colossal struggle trying to switch them off. When I say ‘Subtitles Off’ it hears ‘Subtitles Of’. 1/?

The two most powerful Republican politicians in America - the president and co-president of the United States - are publicly praising and defending and excusing the crimes of a far-right foreign politician who leads a party founded by a Holocaust-denying neo-Nazi.

We are in a very, very dark place.

How about an interim government for Russia, with supervision from the UN?

📌

I know, Lars. It was in the link I posted. I’m thinking proximity to Greenland.

It’s not so much about persuading the 77 million who voted for him that he’s a monster, it’s the 90 million who didn’t vote at all who need to see what’s being done for what it is.

Svalbard Global Seed Vault - Wikipedia

Remind me why Trump is after Greenland again? en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Svalbar...

Sorry. SS is social security. I (understandably I think) automatically went to a different SS from 80 odd years ago!

Unbelievable. Trump gives the tyrant Putin a US-Russia ice hockey game. Meanwhile he tells Zelensky to hand over Ukraine’s sovereign energy infrastructure and minerals.

America used to stand for something.

I mean literally DOGE and, well, just everything that is happening over there. The oversight and those famous ‘checks & balances’ all appear to have been gutted, replaced by ‘yes’ men and women. America is fucked!

Reading Wolf Hall just now and this appeared which I thought was very apt for what is happening in the US.

‘Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?’

It means ‘who will guard the guards themselves?’ or ‘who will watch the watchmen?’

Two days apart:

Remarkable clarity in Britain.

Ah, sorry.👍

Eh, I know!

There’s a saying that holding a grudge is like drinking poison and expecting the other person to die.

Tariffs are the economic equivalent of that.

A country that enacts a tariff is drinking economic poison and expecting the other countries to die.

As I've been grumbling about certain BBC presenters, it's important to say that correspondents like Jeremy Bowen, Lyse Doucet and Steve Rosenberg continue to not just deliver the finest reporting and analysis but push back against daft questions. It's such a relief to hear them instead of [redacted]

a cartoon of spongebob squarepants wearing a hat and pants is walking on a green carpet . ALT: a cartoon of spongebob squarepants wearing a hat and pants is walking on a green carpet .

tHErE’s nO fReEDom oF spEecH iN euROpE!

180 degrees. So running (shuffling) away?!

I don’t think there’s been a time since Brexit when I wished more that we were still a part of the EU. Absolutely awful that we are still a bit on the periphery when we should be at the real heart of the key decisions being made.